The Institute of Energy Security (IES) has called for a full-scale probe into the alleged sale of crude oil at low prices by the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) that led to the loss of $9.83millon to the state.
This follows a query letter by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, asking the Chief Executive Officer of GNPC, Mr. K. K. Sarpong, to provide answers to why the state oil firm sold Ghana’s TEN crude oil for a price lower than the lowest on the market.
The letter said the move resulted in the state losing revenue amounting to $9.83millon.
Reacting to this, the Executive Director of the Institute of Energy Security, Paa Kwasi Anamoah Sakyi, told Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on 505 on Class91.3FM that a full-scale investigation must be launched into the matter.
He said: “If it’s true as the letter indicates that crude oil from our field was sold lesser than the official Brent price, then there is a big question to be asked. Somebody needs to give answers to why he made that decision because our crude oil is a sweet type of crude oil and it’s also light, so, normally, such products are sold at a premium to the Brent price, so, if the Brent is going for $65 within a window, it should be sold at $65 plus a premium, and, so, we find it quite questionable that this will happen and also to give the off-stacker the latitude to choose which days within the window, to choose when to price it, it is quite questionable, and, so, we would suggest that we conduct a full-scale investigation into this matter.”